Need, Want, Guilt and Care. On ‘The Tragedy of Development’ in Marshall Berman’s ‘All That is Solid melts into Air’

Development… I have never thought of the development as a tragedy. And yet, it is the most dramatic eternal tragedy of the world. Development rests on constant thought and hence continuous evolvement of one’s knowledge to the point of the destruction of old ideals. Once thought is triggered the development process begins with an inevitable dramatic end, as the development is not possible without the destruction. New spiral of knowledge must rest on the grounds cleared of any previous thought, values, etc, then and only then it would be considered ‘new ‘in oppose to ‘evolved’. This process is one directional: once it has started it can only progress forward without rest (as rest is equalled to end/death) till the end. Development opens Pandora box which is never destined to be closed again. Destructions, personal tragedies and sacrifices are balanced with the final goal of new better world, a hope at the bottom of Pandora box.

The Faustian paradox (or tragedy) of the development is that the better world can not be achieved with the good intentions. The ugly compromises (often self-destructive) have to be made. Gretchens, Philemons and Baucis, the figures impersonating anything old, be it good, loved or cared for, have to be sacrificed to clear the site for the new spiral of knowledge.

Parts of Goethe’s tragedy are applicable on the development of nations and countries (‘Faustian model of development’ according to Berman). However, it must be noted that in Faust case the word’s development was en extension of the self-development and fulfilment achieved with the ‘underworld’ powers offered by Mephistopheles. Relatively wide knowledge of Faust tragedy enables many to speculate and justify the sacrifices made to achieve ‘the honourable aim’. Today’s ‘developers’ have never been visited by Goethe’s symbolic women*: Guilt and Care. They have seen Need just for a second. Want though became their moody driving and ordering lover which didn’t leave the outer world even for a moment.

So are we witnessing the final metamorphosis of Faustian development? I doubt so. It is more like a Hollywood adaptation of the story: we keep the concept of enormous indeed very real sacrifices (slave-like builders of Dubai, destruction of the whole villages along with ‘modernisation’ of their inhabitants, etc) for some ephemeral promises or vision of the better world.

* Need, Want, Guilt and Care are four symbolic women appeared to Faust when he almost grasped his own tragedy. ‘These are the forces that Faust’s program of development has banished from the outer world; but they have crept back as spectres inside his mind’ (Berman, 1988, p. 70)